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Officials say that Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is now entirely in drought. California’s droughts carry a massive price tag, including the state’s recent investment of $2.5 billion in dams and underground storage projects. NASA has just revealed that a single season of drought in the Amazon rainforest can decrease the forest’s carbon dioxide absorption for years after rainwater returns.

To address similar grave and growing challenges, the Technion is advancing the most innovative and impactful solutions in the field of water innovation. The University’s faculty, students and alumni – known globally for their unique propensity for out-of-the box thinking and bold approaches to big problems – are tackling this issue in ways big and small.

Here are a few highlights from this remarkable work.

The father of modern agricultural drip irrigation

Technion alum Raphael Mehoudar developed an irrigation system that waters a square area, in contrast to circular-area sprinklers, and later, for the pioneering water technology firm, Netafim, he invented the drip pipes that have changed how crops are watered around the world. He also came up with the dual-quantity flushing system, which is in use today in almost every Israeli home – and in hundreds of thousands of others globally – while only an IDF cadet!

A grand plan for desalination

Despite chronic droughts, Israel has plenty of drinking water—thanks in large part to desalination technology pioneered at the Technion, which has been exported around the world. Scientists at the Technion’s Stephen and Nancy Grand Water Research Institute helped build Israel’s five water desalination plants and are now developing next-generation desalination processes. This process will allow for more cost-efficient plants that can more easily serve areas currently off the grid.

Separating moisture from air—efficiently

Technion Profs. David Broday and Eran Friedler have developed an innovative approach to extract atmospheric moisture more efficiently as a source of drinking water. Their technology separates moisture from air and cools only the vapor, not the entire air volume, until it condenses. Their system requires 25-65 percent less energy for atmospheric moisture harvesting than other direct-cooling systems.

A wastewater treatment pioneer

Technion graduate Hovav Gilan is founder and CEO of WellToDo, a company launched from the Technion Technology Transfer (T3) unit. Its water treatment systems remove contaminants without generating any brine or byproducts. WellToDo focuses on removing nitrates, the world’s most common groundwater pollutant. Gilan, who developed his technology with Technion Profs. Moshe Sheintuch and Uri Matatov-Meytal, says WellToDo is “the only company doing this.”

A drop in the bucket

Research institutions are uniquely equipped to develop the knowledge and human capital to move the needle on the issues that will shape how we live for generations.

On each and every visit to the Technion, I’m blown away by the vision of the Technion’s people – on campus and among its global alumni network of alumni – and even more, by the sheer will and ingenuity with which they turn these dreams into reality.

But even among the world’s great research institutions, the Technion stands out for its daring to think differently and ability to confront problems that others dismiss as simply unsolvable. This is why I believe that the water innovation we’ve seen so far from the Technion will be a mere drop in the bucket of what’s to come.

By investing in and supporting those dreams, the American Technion Society has the opportunity to invest in our common future.

In the current era of social entrepreneurship, leading philanthropists and foundations seek to maximize their return on investment for every single gift and grant. In that sense, the contemporary philanthropic sector is not all that different from the private/corporate space. Charitable causes must present a value proposition, not just a feel-good anecdote.

To prove they deserve major philanthropic support, research universities are tasked with showing that they do more for society than simply grant degrees and transmit knowledge (which is critical work in and of itself!). They need to articulate their sense of mission, vision, identity, and purpose—and to produce results, not only for their own institution, but for the greater community. Their laboratory is not the lecture hall, but the world.

With these principles in mind, the Technion kicked off a $1.8 billion, global fundraising campaign this month at the university’s annual Board of Governors meeting in Haifa—the largest and most ambitious fundraising effort ever launched by an Israeli university. Between now and 2024—the centennial of the Technion’s first-ever class—the campaign will amass funds for crucial areas of need for the Technion such as fellowships, student support, faculty recruitment and retention, research infrastructure, and capital projects.

Despite the historic size and scope of this campaign, the average observer still might not be particularly moved or impressed by the fact that a university is raising money for itself. Fundraising is not the end goal of the campaign. The ultimate objective is to exponentially grow support for world-changing and life-saving innovation.

The Technion confronts bold problems that others dismiss as unsolvable, such as by enabling researchers and alumni to design drugs that target individual cancer cells when cancer is widely deemed incurable, or undertake multi-billion-dollar solar initiatives to create “sun farms” in the Negev desert that will help Israel achieve 10-percent sustainable energy by 2020.

It drives new ideas and scientific advancement across the globe, like developing 360-degree cameras to remotely monitor the safety of construction sites, preventing injuries and deaths.

It stays true to its values, including its staunch commitments to diversity and equality; the Technion has appointed more female deans than any other Israeli university, and recruits a large and thriving population of Arab students and faculty.

And it does this all with less, through delivering $4 of impact for every dollar spent on research by a typical American university.

The combined force of these attributes results in the Technion’s outsized global impact in sectors including the environment, sustainability, and water conservation; health and medicine; artificial intelligence, information, and communication; quantum science, matter, and engineering; and advancing Israel security, leadership, and diversity.At its heart, the Technion’s campaign is about storytelling—but storytelling with impact, and measurable value. The university’s existing supporters already know that the Technion’s heart and brain work together. But a much wider audience deserves to hear it too – to understand the individual stories of inspiration and achievement within the larger narrative. These are the stories of the incredible people who study, teach, or research at the Technion, combined with the university’s rankings, investments, number of global partnerships, and reach of innovation.

New audiences will learn about Prof. Hossam Haick, the inventor of a “nose” that detects 17 diseases in your breath. He developed the first massive open online course (MOOC) at the Technion, and is the first person in the world to design such a course in two languages: English and Arabic. To date, More than 42,000 people have participated in Haick’s MOOC.

They will discover Alon Shikar, a Technion lecturer who is helping pave the way to Martian expeditions by building a simulation in the Negev to investigate satellite communications, 3D printing capabilities, and solar radiation protection.

And they will be introduced to the Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israel’s first university campus in China, which trains an elite group of scientists and engineers who are working together to create solutions for the pressing environmental challenges faced by China and the world as a whole.

But the Technion and American Technion Society cannot tell these types of stories alone. We need our current supporters to energize this global campaign in any way they can—through social media sharing, working their personal and professional networks, and other forms of spreading the word in their communities.

Let’s work together to tell the Technion’s story—the full range of its value, from inspiring humanitarian tales to robust return on investment—to ensure that the university and the global community it supports will have the resources they need to make the world a better place.

It is famously known as the placebo effect—medical benefits that cannot be attributed to the properties of a treatment itself, and are therefore the result of the patient’s belief in the treatment. The public and the medical community have long been confounded by this phenomenon. But Assistant Professor Asya Rolls, a member of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and head of the Rolls Lab, is beginning to solve the mystery.

Understanding that a specific section of the brain—the reward system—is activated when people have positive expectations, Rolls and Assistant Prof. Shai Shen-Orr conducted research that showed how activation of the reward system boosts anti-bacterial immune response. The discovery, according to Rolls, has practical implications such as the development of therapeutic techniques like trans-cranial magnetic stimulation or video games that activate specific brain regions to control the immune system and strengthen its ability to cure disease.

Rolls is just one of the trailblazing women of the Technion, which has five female deans, a record for academic institutions in Israel. These women are key drivers of the world-changing innovation that is produced at the Technion and exported across the globe.

Prof. Shulamit Levenberg, dean of the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering; Prof. Yehudit Dori, dean of the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology; Prof. Iris Aravat, dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning; Prof. Marcelle Machluf, dean of the Faculty of Food Engineering and Biotechnology; and Prof. Orit Hazzan, dean of Graduate Studies

One of those women is Prof. Shulamit Levenberg, dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering and the Stanley and Sylvia Shirvan chair in cancer and life sciences. Her lab combines knowledge from cellular biology, tissue engineering, and mechanical engineering to investigate and understand the formation of vascular networks in three-dimensional constructs, with the goal of creating breakthroughs in stem-cell therapy as well as organ and tissue regeneration. For instance, the lab investigates the transplantation of stem cells as a method for regenerating tissue and in the treatment of spinal cord injuries. Levenberg also leads the Rina and Avner Schneur Center of Diabetes Research, which focuses on the development of a cure for type 2 diabetes that’s based on transplanting engineered tissue.

Prof. Marcelle Machluf, dean of the Technion’s Faculty of Food Engineering and Biotechnology and director of the Laboratory for Cancer Drug Delivery & Cell Based Technologies at the Technion Integrated Cancer Center, harnesses biological and engineering knowledge and expertise to design novel medical solutions through drug and gene delivery, cell-based and cell-free therapies, and biomedical and tissue engineering. The lab is pioneering the use of “nano-ghosts” (naturally targeted drug and gene delivery systems) in the fight against cancer.

The Technion’s commitment to women’s empowerment extends far beyond its five female deans. The university is striving to achieve 50/50 gender balance across its faculty, administration, and student body.

“Technion achievements result from fostering excellence,” says Prof. Orit Hazzan, dean of undergraduate studies. “It is not about a specific gender or any other specific characteristic. In this spirit, the Technion enables the success of its faculty members neither as women or men, but, rather, as researchers in science and engineering, providing all of them with the same working conditions.”

We have made tremendous progress towards this goal. The percentage of women in the Technion’s original class in 1924 was 0.06 percent—just one of 17 students. Today, the female portion of the Technion’s student body is an all-time high 40 percent, and women make up 42 percent of the university’s doctoral students.

At the same time, the Technion still has a long way to go before achieving complete balance. The average observer might think it will take us decades to get there, or even claim that we will never achieve this objective.

Yet when pursuing lofty goals, it is instructive to remember Prof. Roll’s research. The placebo effect teaches us that our thoughts and expectations have the power to cure. Similarly, we must have a confident and ambitious attitude in our quest to shatter glass ceilings and achieve the previously impossible. That is precisely the Technion’s mindset as an institution.

As Rolls says when describing her research, “There is huge potential embedded in ourselves, we just need to understand it to harness it.”

Put yourself in the shoes of a busy college student—preoccupied with academics, extracurriculars, a social life, and coming into your own as a young adult. Then, imagine bringing an untrained puppy literally everywhere you go. Whether you are walking around campus, riding the bus, attending class, studying at the library, working at a student job to help pay off your loans, or trying to relax in your dorm, the responsibility is inescapable. The puppy comes with you everywhere. Nevertheless, you persist with training the puppy for more than a year.

This is the responsibility that 20 students at the Technion sign up for every year, as part of a program to adopt and train guide dogs for the blind. The students receive instructions on how to train guide dog puppies at home, on the street, and in crowded public areas. The training lasts for a year and a half and the students invest countless hours, and yet they stay focused on their ultimate goal: providing greater independence to blind individuals in society.

Perhaps what’s most remarkable about this program is how unremarkable it is for the Technion, where the spirit of Tikkun Olam – a commitment to making the world a better place – animates virtually every student, professor, program, and initiative.

As we marked the milestone of Israel’s 70th Independence Day this month, I found myself thinking about this giving spirit, which is at the heart of the Jewish state’s history. This story is told powerfully by author Avi Jorisch in his recent book “Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World,” which uncovers how tiny Israel has had an outsized impact globally through a selfless approach, aspiring to a purpose that is larger than itself.

Selflessness is intimately woven into the fabric of Israel, which has fought for survival every day for its 70 years of existence—and responds to this challenge not through self-pity, but instead by empathizing with countries and people in need worldwide and assuming the crucial responsibility of repairing the world.

Rather than using its ingenuity exclusively to solve its own crises and to improve life for its own citizens, who face well-documented challenges, Israel plays a disproportionate role in helping solve some of the world’s greatest problems. When there is a devastating earthquake in Nepal or Mexico, a hurricane in Puerto Rico or Houston, or any other major natural disaster, Israeli first-responders are always among the first international aid workers on the scene—from thousands of miles away, even as turmoil rages in the Jewish state and the Middle East. With the drip irrigation, reclamation and desalination technology it developed to solve its own water shortages, Israel helps California tackle its droughts. Israeli solar energy is literally a light unto the nations in Africa, bringing power to hundreds of rural villages that are off the grid.

Israel’s game-changing innovations are born at the university level through research and cultivating future leaders, and the Technion is leading the revolution. The Technion has pioneered a unique educational model that runs on a parallel track to its home country’s rising global influence. Through an interdisciplinary research approach and the operation of cutting-edge research centers, the Technion supports the people, ideas, and inventions that make immeasurable contributions to Israel and the world through life-saving medicine, sustainable energy, computer science, water conservation, space, nanotechnology, and more.

Just like Israel, the Technion is selfless and does not confine ingenuity to its own boundaries. Through expansive overseas partnerships, the Technion shares and exports its innovation. The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech in New York City combines the Technion’s professors, research, and resources and entrepreneurial know-how with Cornell University’s renowned reputation in engineering and computer science. This partnership results in groundbreaking academic programs such as the Technion-Cornell dual master’s degree in Health Tech, which teaches students to create applications to promote healthier living. The Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology, meanwhile, trains an elite group of scientists and engineers who are working together to create solutions for the pressing environmental challenges faced by China and the world as a whole. Such efforts are not about financial gain. They are about improving lives.

From New York to Israel to China and many places in between, the Technion is bursting with ideas and activities that support a better world.

So, next time you observe someone relying on a seeing eye dog to enjoy the spring weather, to cross a street to the bakery, or to attend a concert, think of the Technion, and think of Israel. Think of our commitment to continue this momentum for the next 70 years—and beyond.

In the pursuit of game-changing innovation and solutions to the world’s most serious problems, it is important to remember that every step counts. That is the spirit that comes to mind as I reflect on Multiple Myeloma Awareness Month, which the U.S. observes each March.

The Technion has been a key player in fighting Multiple Myeloma—the second most-common blood cancer. Velcade®, a successful drug for treating Multiple Myeloma, is based on the discovery of the ubiquitin system (the body’s way of disposing of unwanted proteins) by Technion Distinguished Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover. Their decades working to identify elements of the ubiquitin system earned them the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and is the perfect example of a major breakthrough on the road to curing cancer.

Finding a cure for cancer is often bandied about as the quintessential example of a lofty goal. Ambition, patience, and persistence are all crucial components shaping the mindset of the thousands of doctors and scientists at the Technion who perform the research that moves scientific progress toward this objective. Even if the research doesn’t go as far as curing cancer today, the next generation can capitalize on their advancements and inch closer to accomplishing “mission impossible.”Professors Hershko and Ciechanover’s discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation has been a key step in discovering how diseases such as cancer develop and progress. Still, the American Cancer Society estimates that there will be more than 1.7 million new cancer cases diagnosed as well as more than 600,000 cancer deaths during 2018 in the U.S., whose population is about 327 million.

The Technion remains undeterred by the magnitude of this challenge. Just last month, Technion researchers achieved two new breakthroughs that could transform cancer treatment.

Schroeder and Krinsky integrated molecular machines within lipid-based particles resembling the natural membrane of biological cells. When the particles “sense” biological tissue, they are activated and produce therapeutic proteins, dictated by a synthetic DNA template. The particles recruit the energy sources and building blocks needed for their continued activity from the external environment—such as tumor tissue. When this technology was tested in mice, the engineered particles reached the tumor and produced a protein that eradicated the cancer cells.

The particles developed at Technion may play an important role in the trend of personalized medicine—the adjustment of treatment to the genetic and medical profile of a specific patient.

Using gold and light nanoparticles for targeted, non-invasive drug delivery

The random dispersion of drugs throughout the body often lowers their effectiveness and damages healthy tissue, leading to adverse side effects such as hair loss and bowel issues in cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy. But Technion Assistant Professor Boaz Mizrahi and doctoral candidate Alona Shagan have developed technology that enables drugs to be delivered and released only to the diseased tissue that a drug is targeting.

The new method uses a unique polymer coating that contains nanoscale gold particles, in addition to the drug itself. The drug only releases when Near-Infrared (NIR) light shines on the gold particles, heating them up, and causing the polymeric coating to melt. NIR light is able to penetrate bodily tissues without harming them.

Philanthropy and a multidisciplinary approach

Major advances in cancer treatment don’t occur in a vacuum. Research universities like the Technion are often the environments that are best suited to produce technological breakthroughs—and philanthropy is needed to ensure that crucial research can be conducted from start to finish. The American Technion Society doesn’t literally perform scientific research, but we connect the diverse and sometimes disparate groups of people who can accomplish far-reaching goals like a cure for cancer. We don’t solve the problem—we enable Technion to assemble the team that can solve it.

That strategy is implemented by the Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC), a first-of-its-kind institution launched in November 2016 that brings together world-class clinical experts; life science researchers; and chemists, physicists, and engineers to wage the battle against cancer. Only an integrated team of diverse, accomplished researchers and practitioners can have a chance in this fight.

Multiple Myeloma Awareness Month is a time to recommit to the collaborative, multidisciplinary spirit behind the founding of TICC. In the process of trying to climb the mountain to cure cancer, we will only make strides by using all of the tools at our disposable.

This month marks the celebration of the Chinese New Year, kicking off the “Year of the Dog.” 2018 also promises to be the “Year of Israel-China Technological Collaboration.”

Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology campus

One major reason is because just a couple of months ago, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and its Chinese partners inaugurated the Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT), the first Israeli university campus in China.

GTIIT represents another major step forward in the Technion’s global expansion, which includes new partnerships like the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in New York along with the signing of memoranda of understanding with more than 200 universities and research institutes worldwide.

Consistently ranked among the top international science and technology research universities, the Technion has a longstanding reputation for advancing innovation that pushes the boundaries of human knowledge, changes industries, and saves lives. However, in China, New York, and elsewhere, Technion is exporting not just the products of its innovation, but also its process of innovation— the uniquely mentality for thinking outside the box, which is the lifeblood of the Israeli economy and has turned the country into the “start-up nation.”

This model is also rooted in an interdisciplinary research approach—unique to Israel’s universities and developed at the Technion—which brings together experts across fields to cultivate big ideas and address the most difficult challenges. This way of doing business has supported the Technion’s people as they have made immeasurable contributions to Israel and the world in medicine, sustainable energy, computer science, water conservation, nanotechnology, and many other fields.

Today this approach is taking root in China through the GTIIT. Established with the support of the Guangdong Province, the Shantou Municipal Government, the Chinese government, and the Li Ka-shing Foundation, GTIIT is training an elite group of scientists and engineers to shape China’s future. The Institute will also promote cooperation between Shantou University and Technion, where partnerships are already underway in the medical sciences.

It is no coincidence that Chinese leaders choose the Technion as its strategic partner for this major project. After more than two decades of extraordinary growth driven by industrialization, China understands that developing human capital is key to their country’s continued success and economic expansion. Israel’s experience transitioning from a developing country to a high-tech powerhouse offers important lessons, and Chinese leaders understand the central role that the Technion has played in spurring this development.

GTIIT is an investment in the Chinese people, with great potential to spawn new companies and drive economic activity in Guangdong, while advancing solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing China and the world—from reducing air pollution, to developing alternative energy sources, to addressing health crises like cancer and lung disease.

GTIIT is also a testament to the power of philanthropy. The institute would not be possible without the vision and generosity of Li Ka-shing, whose foundation granted $130 million to the GTIIT initiative in 2013. Li’s philanthropic work demonstrates the potential of a single person to change many millions of lives.

I’m excited to be leading a delegation of Technion supporters to visit the institution from Oct. 28-Nov. 10, 2018, for the Technion World Tour China. We will tour the new Technion Guangdong campus along with some of most culturally significant sites in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, and meet the leaders some of China’s most influential start-ups and investment companies.

Until then, the Technion has much to celebrate for Chinese New Year 2018. May the Year of the Dog be marked by a flood of innovation and success as Israel and China grow their exciting partnership.

During the final quarter of 2017 alone, Technion achieved what feels like many years’ worth of breakthroughs, awards, and milestones in its global partnerships, which are saving lives, creating jobs, and advancing the bounds of human knowledge in so many fields.

Here’s a quick review of some of the most exciting highlights from 2017, which offer a glimpse into the kind of transformative innovation we can expect in the year ahead.

Israel’s population is less than 9 million, and China’s is more than 1.4 billion. Yet the two nations are true partners in the Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT), which was inaugurated on Dec. 18 as the first Israeli university in China. The result of a historic partnership between Technion, the Li Ka-shing Foundation, the Guangdong Provincial Government, and the Shantou Municipal Government, the new university will train an elite group of scientists and engineers in disciplines related to the environment.

An international research team led by Technion’s Department of Materials Science has discovered how a brainless brittle star can create material like tempered glass underwater at ambient conditions. The discovery may open new bio-inspired routes for toughening brittle ceramics in various applications.

A recent survey of representatives from leading global companies that was published by Times Higher Education identified Technion as the world’s leading academic institution when it comes to preparing students to take top positions in the digital revolution. Technion came in ahead of the University College of London, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the top 10 of the rankings, once again proving that Israel punches far above its weight in global innovation.

Team Prismatix—a collaboration between Technion and the Bnai Zion Medical Center—earned the Longitude Prize Fund’s Discovery Award for making promising developments in rapid diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance. The Israeli team developed technology that provides a determination of antibiotic resistance in less than three hours—the first step towards a point–of–care diagnostic test that will conserve antibiotics for future generations and revolutionize the delivery of global healthcare.

A group led by Technion researchers successfully repaired completely severed spinal cords in paralyzed rats, giving them the ability to walk again. The researchers hope that once follow-up studies are conducted, the technology utilized to restore mobility for the rats can be applied to treating humans’ spinal cord injuries.

Technion researchers are using solar energy to make hydrogen from water, which will make possible the production of hydrogen in a safe, centralized manner at the point of sale (for example, at a gas station for electric cars fueled by hydrogen) located far from the solar farm.

Technion continued the rapid growth of its influence in the U.S. this fall by signing a research accord with the University of Illinois system, the dedication of Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus in New York, home of the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, and inking a water technology agreement with the City of Chicago.

Student Alon Berger (seated) wears the Technion-created device that can diagnose diseases based on eyelid motion. At right is lead researcher Adi Hanuka, of the Technion’s Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

Researchers at Technion have developed a device that can diagnose diseases by means of an eyelid motion monitor. The device, which is in its developmental stages, has won several international awards.

It is no accident that Israel has cultivated an environment with the world’s largest number of start-ups per capita. The seeds of Start-Up Nation are planted at academic institutions, particularly at the Technion—where future and current innovators, Israeli and international alike, receive the training and conduct the research to advance game-changing innovation for Israel and the world.

Technion not only produces breakthroughs in cancer research, computer science, defense technology, environmental engineering, nanotechnology, and other fields, but amplifies the power of this innovation by forging key partnerships with fellow leading academic institutions worldwide.

These highlights symbolize the tremendous power of our work to advance knowledge and improve lives—fulfilling our role as a university of excellence in a global society. Stronger than ever, with more vital potential than ever, we look forward to spreading even more of our light in 2018.